


scratch on the side

by notsafeforowls



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Christmas, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 13:08:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17162528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsafeforowls/pseuds/notsafeforowls
Summary: “I got you something.”





	scratch on the side

**Author's Note:**

> This is technically part of something that will probably be much, much longer if/when it's eventually done (a fake dating fic) but I thought this section worked well with the holiday season, even if it does end a bit awkwardly.

Nate stretched as he listened to the sound of people arguing down the hall. It was probably one of his cousins trying to get their kid to go back to bed instead of opening their gifts. Which, a childish part of him thought, wasn’t really breaking the rules when it was now ten minutes after midnight.

 

Slowly, in case Mick was asleep, Nate rolled over just enough to switch the lamp on and touch the tips of his fingers to the gift that he’d managed to hide under the bed while Mick was out of the room. His mom had asked if he had anything to put under the tree and he’d claimed that he and Mick preferred to exchange gifts in private, but it was more because Nate wasn’t sure how Mick would react. It wasn’t that weird to get your friends gifts, sure, but the guy who was pretending to be dating you? That was probably weird. Weirder when you were kind of had a thing for him, and weirder still when you were hoping that maybe he wasn’t just doing this for free food anymore.

 

He carefully picked it up, wincing at the weight of it, and turned back to Mick – only to find Mick awake and watching him.

 

“What’re you doing, Pretty?”

 

“It’s Christmas.”

 

He yawned as he sat up, punching at the pillow to fluff it up a bit more. “I noticed that. I meant what’re you doing with that?”

 

“I got you something.” Nate put it between them on the bed before Mick could even have a chance to reject it. Or before Nate’s hands went numb.

 

Mick ran his hands over it a few times, examining the wrapping paper carefully, frowning at it. Nate didn’t know what that expression meant, but he didn’t look like he hated it.

 

“It’s okay if you didn’t get me anything,” Nate said quickly. “I just saw it one day and thought that you’d like it, and there wasn’t a problem with me taking it because I checked the historical record and it was supposed to be lost in a fire anyway, so I wasn’t even messing with history by taking it.”

 

“It’s under the tree; your mom made me put it there before she made me help with the food.” Mick kept his eyes on the gift as he very slowly unwrapped it, hardly even ripping the paper. Concentrating, or maybe just not wanting to look at Nate. When the last sheet of paper fell away – and, okay, maybe Nate had begged Ava to help him wrap it because he wasn’t very good at wrapping things which weren’t in boxes – he stared at his gift.

 

“It’s stupid, I know, but when I was in your room last month, I saw that you had one on your desk, and when I asked Zari about it, she said that you used it and that it was a reproduction of one that you’d used a long time ago – I think she said that you and Snart had stolen it and sold it on – so when I saw this one in an office a couple of weeks ago, I just kind of… Took it for you.”

 

Mick touched the typewriter carefully, as if he was afraid that he was going to break it. Considering that Nate had managed to drop it twice, he didn’t think that would be a problem unless Gideon shot it at someone. Or maybe he was looking to see if it was damaged, and it was, Nate just didn’t know enough about typewriters to know that it was—

 

“I lied. About why I wanted one,” he added before Nate could ask. “I never stole one of these. I always wanted to, but I didn’t. It was a family business – parents and kids. I think the last one died a hundred years ago. Not a lot of the typewriters survived the war. My mom…” Mick swallowed hard. “My mom was given one when a neighbour died. Their family didn’t want it. The thing is, it had a scratch on one side where I hit it with a chair.”

 

And the typewriter _did_ have a scratch on one side.

 

“Oh,” Nate said quietly.

 

It hadn’t occurred to Nate to check the date or location when he’d seen the typewriter. It had just been a house where he and Gary had ended up, asking about weird creatures on a nearby farm – asking Mick’s mom, Nate realised now. The Time Bureau’s official files had just mentioned a fire, nothing about Mick or his family, and why would they have? The Time Bureau’s files were usually plain and emotionless. Large fire. Building partially destroyed. A short inventory of what had been recovered according to investigation files. A mention of two deaths. A single survivor. No fugitive activity. All Mick had ever told him was that his parents had died in a fire that he had accidentally started, and then elaborated on it by saying that he didn’t regret letting his dad burn.

 

“Thank you,” Mick said, brushing his fingers across that damn scratch, and when he finally looked at Nate, Nate was struck by just how much he wanted to kiss Mick then and there.

**Author's Note:**

> And if anyone's interested in what Mick got Nate, he stole him some scrolls from the Library of Alexandria before Caesar could damage it.


End file.
